“You have no right to! This is genocide and deprivation of liberty!”: Luka Safronov-Zatravkin (31) protested with these fiery words last weekend, not at one of the many anti-war demonstrations that continue to take place every day despite the many arrests by the Russian police – no, Safronov-Zatravkin was standing in front of a McDonald’s branch in Moscow. The 270-kilo pianist chained himself to the door of a restaurant owned by the US fast-food giant to protest against the closures announced for Tuesday (McDonalds is one of the many companies reportedly showing a sign with a Russia boycott against the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, note).
He sees the closure of the 850 McDonald’s branches in Russia as a “hostile and criminal act towards himself and his fellow citizens,” explained the fast-food lover, whose sensational action attracted countless onlookers and quickly went viral on the Internet through video recordings. He then published a text on the web and wrote: “With McDonald’s different kinds of freedom came into my life. Freedom of choice, freedom to move, freedom to implement and follow my own values.”
And that’s not all: “My weight is more than 270 kilograms. It is my choice, my means of freedom. So far I’ve been able to follow my own principles,” explained Safronov-Zatravkin. Finally, he also bizarrely described measures such as the closure of McDonald’s branches as “genocide”.
